Using ARGO Profilers and Ocean Color Satellite Data to Trace the Congo River
Ajit
Subramaniam, Columbia Universtiy, ajit@ldeo.columbia.edu
(Presenting)
Yvonne
Colebank, Columbia Universtiy, ycc2107@columbia.edu
The Congo is the second largest river in the world. The plume delivers essential nutrients to the ocean, and being buoyant, heats more rapidly than the surrounding ocean. Because of the proximity of seasonally occurring coastal and equatorial upwelling, the Congo plume has never been fully mapped successfully and we do not have an accurate assessment of the temporal and spatial variability of the plume. The plume contains CDOM increasing light attenuation that can be remotely measured by ocean color satellites. But upwelling also brings CDOM from ocean depths to the surface, and thus ocean color alone is not enough to distinguish the upwelled waters from the plume. We used surface salinity, measured by drifting ARGOS profilers for this. Results showed that months June through October showed highest values of K490. However, the high surface salinity indicated that this is a large area of upwelling. The lowest salinity values, between 34 and 36 ppt were found near the mouth of the Congo between February and April. This reflects the lag time between highest discharge in November-January and the maximum plume in March.
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